Dragon Lady of Macross (part 8 of 30)

a Macross fanfiction by Calamity-Queen of Cordite

Back to Part 7
January 2009...

Ranma approached the center of the simulated show area where the Blues 
and her team were watching her demonstrate the VF-1's maneuvering 
abilities. Thus far what she had done, while graceful and showy, hadn't 
been anything outside of what a normal aircraft could do. She was flying 
slowly, as if to make a low speed pass.

"Okay, are you guys ready to be amazed?" she asked as she approached.

"Show us what you got, Dragon Lady," Kingsley said cheerfully.

When Ranma got close enough, she pitched the nose of Rose One straight 
up violently, standing it on its tail, balanced on a pillar of thrust. 
As her momentum carried her passed the spectators, she used the roll 
thrusters to roll Rose One around its longitudinal axis two and a half 
complete rotations. As the air resistance slowed her to almost a stop, 
she used the pitch thrusters to push the nose over as she brought the 
engines to full power. Rose One came out of the tail stand, inverted and 
leaped forward out of the show area.

Ranma was exultant. She had never done that maneuver before outside of 
the simulator. It had been something she had come up with on her own and 
she hoped it looked impressive. She had one other maneuver she wanted to 
try solo. If it worked equally as well, then she had some ideas for some 
routines to be performed by her soloists.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the Blues and Roses alike were just beginning 
to pick their jaws up off the ground.

"Did you just see that, Boss?" one of the Blues asked.

"I saw it," Kingsley confirmed. "I'm not sure I believe my eyes but I 
saw it. That was...incredible."

"Incredible? How about straight up impossible?" Morris said in awe. He 
turned to the other Roses. "You can all do stuff like that?"

"I...um..." Kruger stammered, "I've never seen a VF-1 do that before. 
Maybe, but Mom is the best out of all of us, so I don't honestly know."

"Boss, I think we're in trouble," another Blue commented. "Anything we 
do would be boring next to something like that."

"Okay, you guys ready for the next trick," Ranma's voice came over the 
speakers.

"Please, dazzle us some more," Kingsley said, the awe clearly evident in 
his voice.

Ranma approached the stands again, similar to before, traveling at an 
extremely low speed. Like before, but a little sooner, she pitched the 
nose straight up and balanced Rose One in mid air on its thrust and 
spinning it around its roll axis twice. This time she came to a complete 
stop just in front of the stands, hovering on a pillar of thrust about 
thirty feet off the ground. She hung there for a few heartbeats and then 
brought the engines to full throttle, adding the booster power. A column 
of blue flame shot down toward the ground and Rose One shot straight up 
like a Saturn 5 rocket.

"You've got to be kidding me," Morris said, stunned. "What sort of 
aircraft is capable of something like that?"

"Mom rocks!" Marissa Savage announced in awe. The rest of Rose cheered 
their agreement.

(oO\O/Oo)

As Ranma climbed down out of her plane, she found herself swamped by an 
excited Rose team. Vicki Whitehall nearly knocked her over as she cannon 
balled in and glomped her.

"That was bloody awesome, Mum!" the excited honey blonde Brit exclaimed. 
"Please tell us you can teach us to do those things!"

"Yeah, Mom, that was the coolest thing I've ever seen!" Cassie enthused 
as she joined the hug as well.

Soon all of them had glomped on in a big group hug and were gushing 
excitedly about the maneuvers Ranma had performed. Ranma couldn't help 
but laugh happily at the joy washing over her. The Blues stood back and 
watched the scene with amusement.

"Hey, Boss, how about we do that to you after the next show?" one of 
them suggested.

"What's that?" Kingsley asked with a grin. "You say you want to clean 
the head for the next six months?" The Blues laughed.

"Where's the love?" another Blue asked jokingly.

"Over there, apparently," Morris grinned and pointed to the group of 
women still bouncing around excitedly.

"So how did it look?" Ranma asked Kingsley after finally being released 
by her team.

"It was pure ballet," Kingsley answered. "Very impressive. You ladies 
are definitely going to draw the crowds."

"Impressive, hell," Morris said. "That was unbelievable, indescribable, 
freakin' shocking, and just plain cool as hell. If all your people can 
do that, we might as well cash it in. You'll make us look dull as 
watching paint peel."

"Nah, what you guys do is pretty impressive too," Ranma said. "There's 
room for everyone. Besides, you guys are like a tradition. People will 
still want to see you as much or more than us."

(oO\O/Oo)

"So Mom, do you think we will be able to do things like that?" Ursula 
asked as the Rose team gathered in Ranma's hotel room. Ranma looked 
around at the expectant faces and smiled.

"I don't see why not," she replied. "You all have a high enough neural 
link percentage to fly the VF-1 hands free. That's all it really takes, 
besides a good sense of balance. I haven't noticed that any of you are 
clumsy, so I think you should be able to do it."

"Fantastic," Marissa smiled. "We're gonna be the bomb!" She high-fived 
Cassie.

"So what's the plan for tomorrow?" Tia asked.

"I want you to start training in those maneuvers I showed you today," 
Ranma said. "You'll be doing them at altitude at first to give you time 
to recover if you stumble. Remember, it's nearly impossible to put a 
Valkyrie in an unrecoverable situation, so if you do have a bobble just 
stay calm and you'll be alright. Beyond that, we need to start coming up 
with moves for the routine. I have some ideas, but don't be afraid to 
make your own suggestions."

"Tell us what you're thinking," Ursula suggested.

"Okay, the first one I have in mind is based on the last maneuver I did 
with the booster climb," Ranma explained. "It would be for our soloists. 
I was thinking we could have two planes approach from either end of the 
crowd. When they get near the middle, they would do the tail stand and 
pirouette maneuver until they cross each other. The pirouette rotation 
would stop with the tops of the aircraft facing each other as they stand 
stationary. Then they would begin the booster climb and corkscrew around 
each other at the same time. If we added a smoke effect then it would 
look pretty neat as the smoke trails coiled around each other."

"Cool," Vicki said. "And the smoke should be dark pink from one aircraft 
while it would be white form the other." Everyone agreed.

"How about this?" Tia suggested. "We have two aircraft make a high speed 
close pass over the field while two more of us come in at a slow speed 
at right angles to the high speed planes. The high speed planes will 
cross with their wings vertical right before the slow speed planes reach 
the point which they will do the tail stand and pirouette pass followed 
by the inverted egress like Mom did the first time. It would sort of 
look like the high speed planes picked the slower ones up and twirled 
them."

"I like it," Ranma agreed.

The Roses discussed a few more maneuvers they could try and decided that 
the first two would be their two signature maneuvers. They would discuss 
it with the Blues and see if they could come up with other ideas for 
formation maneuvers. They only had a little over a month to come up with 
and practice their routine since they were expected to perform their 
first show during the SDF-1 Launch Day ceremonies in mid-February.

Eventually, the girls drifted back to their own rooms for the night 
until only Ursula was left in Ranma's room.

"How are you doing, Mom?" Ursula asked. "You seem a lot more relaxed 
since we left Macross Island."

"I am," Ranma answered. "It's nice to just have to worry about flying 
and you guys without having to deal with all that other baggage back 
there."

"You want to talk about it?" Ursula offered. Ranma looked at her 
speculatively before she nodded.

"Have you ever had people you think are your friends, but they like to 
pressure you into things you're not comfortable with and seem to think 
it's great fun to make you squirm?" Ranma asked.

"Uh huh," Ursula agreed. "Usually it's all in fun but it can go to far. 
I assume you are referring to Commander Hayes?"

"And Lt. Commander Grant," Ranma answered. "You see, I had a kind of 
peculiar childhood. I'm not going to tell you the entire truth about it 
because it would likely end my career if it got out, but I'll tell you 
enough. My pop was obsessed with martial arts and wasn't a very 
honorable or honest man. He had one driving need beyond filling his 
belly, and that was making me the best martial artist in the world. 
Unfortunately, he was also a raging misogynist and raised me as a boy."

"My god, that's horrible," Ursula gasped.

"For the first sixteen years of my life I was with him," Ranma 
continued, "suffering through insane training techniques that threatened 
not just my life but my sanity, all the while listening to him harp on 
how women were weak and worthless and could never be real martial 
artists. He kept me away from people for the most part traveling all 
over Japan. I never had much of a chance to make friends and I was 
rarely in school since according to Pop that was a distraction from the 
art. One of the times he was forced to put me in school was when I was 
thirteen. It was in an all boys school and that's when the SDF-1 crashed 
on Earth."

"An all boys school? How did you stand it?" Ursula asked.

"Well remember I thought I was a boy at the time," Ranma answered. 
"Anyway, the hubbub surrounding the SDF-1 crashing opened my eyes to the 
fact that there were other things in life than martial arts. I started 
to think it was something I wanted to be a part of and my teachers told 
me the only way that would happen is if I got an education. So I made 
arrangements to continue my schooling via correspondence after my pop 
would eventually decide to pull me out of school again. I ended up with 
my high school diploma just before I turned sixteen."

"Wow, you must be pretty smart to have done that on your own," Ursula 
said, her respect for Ranma climbing. Ranma shrugged.

"It was when I was sixteen it happened," Ranma continued. "Pop dragged 
me to China after he pulled me out of that all boys school. We had been 
traveling around the Chinese countryside for nearly two years when a 
series of events occurred that I won't tell you about. Suffice it to 
say, that's when I discovered I was a girl and I thought my life was 
over. Mind you, I really didn't buy into all that crap about women that 
Pop was always spewing, but the sense of betrayal and the thought that I 
must be some kind of freak nearly sent me over the edge. The only thing 
I knew was I had to get away from my father before he ended up getting 
me killed. When the opportunity presented itself I jumped on it, 
traveling back to Japan by myself and getting enrolled in the RDF 
academy in the States."

"Go on," Ursula said, clearly riveted by the tale.

"Well, I had decided that there wasn't much I could do about my gender," 
Ranma said. "After sixteen years living as a boy I wasn't exactly 
thrilled to discover I was a girl, but I could either let it beat me, or 
I could deal with it and pursue my dreams. I chose my dreams. Anyway, I 
knew nothing about being a girl and wasn't very comfortable doing girl 
things. I accepted the necessities, but was content to be a major 
tomboy. I met Lisa, Commander Hayes, in the Academy. She was my roommate 
and when she found out about my history she helped me a lot, teaching me 
things about being a woman so I wouldn't stand out too much. That was 
important to me then. I wasn't comfortable around people and I certainly 
wasn't comfortable with being in the female role."

"I can imagine," Ursula agreed.

"Well, I graduated the Academy early since I opted for a heavy course 
load and had no desire for a social life," Ranma went on. "I began my 
career flying F/A 18E's and pretty much kept to myself. I wasn't into 
guys. The thought of dating a guy still creeps me out. I didn't feel 
right about dating another woman because to this day I don't think of 
myself as a real woman. It's not how I grew up and while I've accepted 
it as what I am, I still resent it deep down. I'd feel like I was 
deceiving a woman if I dated her."

"Honey, I've seen you in the shower," Ursula grinned. "Trust me, you 
wouldn't be deceiving anyone about being a woman."

"Yeah, well, it doesn't matter what the reality is, it's what my mind is 
telling me deep down," Ranma said. "So anyhow, I never really wanted a 
social life. It was enough for me to have my career and my art. But then 
I met Claudia Grant. She apparently thought it was a terrible thing that 
I was so isolated, whether it was my choice or not, so she made it her 
mission to get me a social life. She hassled and cajoled me until I 
agreed to go party with her. And she was right. I had fun and met people 
that I had helped in the past. It put faces on the work I was doing and 
it made me feel good to see people I had saved and to feel their 
gratitude. I decided that even if I wasn't looking to date anyone, I 
could still have friends and go out to unwind from time to time."

"Good for you," Ursula smiled.

"That brings us up to when I transferred Macross Island and Veritechs," 
Ranma said. "That's when things started to go wrong. Both Claudia and 
Lisa were there and they were the two people I had considered my best 
friends. They were also the only two people that I would let talk me 
into just about anything. I mean, they are level headed and responsible 
people and they are my friends so they wouldn't do anything to hurt me, 
I thought. So when they started pressuring my about doing more things to 
embrace my femininity, I wasn't comfortable with it, but I went along. 
They had helped me before so maybe it wasn't a bad thing. The trouble 
was, they seemed to take great joy in my discomfort while I was getting 
more and more confused about who I am."

"It sounds like they meant well," Ursula observed.

"I'm sure they did," Ranma agreed. "It didn't change the stress and 
confusion though. Add to this, Lisa began to flirt with me more and 
more. This also confused me because I know she likes guys. I figured it 
was a way for her to deal with the loss of the man she loved who was 
killed at Mars Base Sara. I went along with her because in part it felt 
good to feel desired even if it was only an illusion, but mostly because 
I was willing, as her friend, to let her use me to deal with her grief 
and loneliness."

"Ouch," Ursula grimaced.

"Were you at the Thanksgiving Party?" Ranma asked.

"I was," Ursula replied. "You looked gorgeous and your singing was 
sensational."

"Um...thanks," Ranma blushed a little before continuing the story. "That 
was another incident where they tormented me. Lisa and Claudia 
practically forced me into that dress. I mean I looked good and all, but 
I was very uncomfortable putting myself on display like that. I didn't 
feel like it was me and the part of me that was raised a boy was 
mortified. Then Claudia had to drag me up on center stage and make me 
the star attraction. I just wanted to scream."

"I couldn't tell," Ursula commented. "You handled it well. You looked 
very comfortable and confident."

"Thanks, I've become good at suppressing my discomfort over the years," 
Ranma told her. "It was also at the party where Lisa started to get 
serious about us, beginning to act like she wanted to take the 
relationship beyond the flirting. I was terrified for two reasons. The 
first reason was that I found that I had begun to develop more than 
friendship feelings for her and the second was that I was still certain 
that once she dealt with loosing Karl she would want a man again. I was 
also afraid that if I had a relationship with her and then lost her, it 
would upset the life I built. I've never had a relationship like that so 
I hadn't missed it. Up until now my career has been enough, but what if 
after having someone, my career wasn't enough anymore? I was very 
confused, and then people were telling me that it was only a matter of 
time before Lisa made a move to get physical with me." Ranma shrugged.

"That's the way I saw it at the party," Ursula said. "It was clear to 
everyone that she had a major thing for you. Let me guess, then she was 
seen with that guy?"

"I have to correct a little misinformation I allowed to slide before," 
Ranma said blushing. "I knew about her date with the guy and I condoned 
it. It was stressful for me but I wanted her to be happy. If she still 
wanted me afterward that was fine too."

"Oh, okay, so that's not what broke you guys up?" Ursula asked 
surprised.

"No," Ranma answered. "It wasn't."

"What happened?" Ursula asked.

"Pink airplanes," Ranma said with a wry grin.

"Pink airplanes? You mean ours?" Ursula asked in confusion. "Everybody 
loved the paint scheme. How did that cause a problem?"

"I hate pink," Ranma said. "It's a girly color and one I avoid like the 
plague. You have to understand something, my gender is a major cause of 
stress for me. The one refuge I had from it was my aircraft. When I was 
flying, my gender meant nothing. I was free of it. I was just a warrior, 
neither male nor female. Lisa and Claudia were the ones that came up 
with the livery. They knew before hand I was to be the squadron CO and 
they thought it would be cute to thrust my gender in my face again. They 
didn't know about the other stuff with my airplane being my refuge from 
my gender stresses, but when I saw what they had done, knowing they were 
giggling about it the whole time they were plotting it, it was too 
much."

"Oh man," Ursula said. "And we were gushing about it right in front of 
you."

"Yup, when I saw how much you all loved it, I wouldn't have felt right 
about demanding it be changed, but I was going to find out why these 
people that were supposed to be my friends were constantly tormenting 
me. So I confronted them. I maybe wasn't the most rational person at the 
time and things didn't go well. I lost control and everything came 
pouring out. All the confusion, resentment, and hurt, it was all there 
and I lashed out with it. I haven't spoken to either of them since. I 
know I overreacted and hurt them, but I needed some space, some 
distance, to re-center myself and get everything back in balance."

"If it helps, I can understand why you reacted that way," Ursula said in 
sympathy. "You were being pushed in too many different directions at 
once and then you lost your one stable place. Still, I don't think they 
meant to hurt you. You're pretty good at not letting your inner turmoil 
show from what I've seen. They probably didn't realize how much what 
they were doing was affecting you."

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "Since we left Macross, I've started to get my 
balance back and I can see they were trying to help mostly. The pink 
airplane thing was definitely a prank though. Even though they didn't 
realize how badly I'd take it."

"Are you sure about that?" Ursula asked. "I mean because it's very 
tasteful and very fitting for an all female team. Maybe they just didn't 
think about it."

"I'm sure," Ranma sighed. "They knew I hated pink. They could have used 
red, or yellow, or a lot of other colors that would have fit in with the 
rose theme, but they chose pink to yank my chain."

"Well, we could talk to the girls," Ursula suggested. "I'm sure they 
would be just as happy with red or something."

"No, it wouldn't be fair to you guys," Ranma negated. "You all loved it 
and besides if I changed it now it would be like letting them off the 
hook. No, they're stuck with it now. I want them to think about what 
they did every time they see one of us."

"Isn't that kind of vindictive?" Ursula asked. Ranma smirked and raised 
an eyebrow. Ursula grinned. "I guess you're right, they deserve it, but 
I think you should forgive them. They do sound like they were your 
friends. Maybe then the livery will just be a reminder that if they push 
too much they will lose your friendship."

"That was my thought," Ranma smiled. "Thanks for listening. Sheesh, and 
I thought the CO was supposed to be the unit therapist."

"Heh," Ursula said, giving Ranma a hug, "we should all be there for each 
other, you know?"

"Good point," Ranma said, hugging her back. "Well, we have to be up 
early tomorrow, so what say we get some rest?"

"Alright," Ursula grinned. "See you in the morning, Mom."

(oO\O/Oo)

The next five weeks were fast paced and hectic as the Blue's helped the 
Roses put together a routine and practice it by the deadline. Every 
member of the team worked hard as they brought their formations tighter 
and their passes closer. They critiqued each other on their performance 
frankly and drove themselves to higher and higher levels of precision. 
Rose knew they were nearly there when the Blues began to nod their 
approval.

The last weekend before they were to leave, the Blues invited the Roses 
to a barbeque at Kingsley's house.

"Which one of you eats the most?" Natalia asked when the invitation was 
extended. The blues pointed to Berry Richards, the Marine pilot of Blue 
4. He proudly patted his belly. "Take what he eats and triple it for 
Mom."

Everybody gawked at her.

"I'm sorry?" Kingsley asked in confusion.

"Well, you see, Mom really likes to eat," Marissa smirked. "I've never 
seen anyone put away as much food at a sitting as she does. It's a good 
thing we are going home soon became they've begun to refuse her service 
at the all-you-can-eat places in town."

"Yesterday, we stopped at BK's on the way back to the hotel," Tia chimed 
in. I watched her put away four whoppers and two large orders of fries. 
She polished it off with a large chocolate shake."

"And two hours later, she wanted to go out for ice cream," Vicki added.

"Yeah, right," Berry snorted, obviously not buying it. "Ain't no way 
that petite little thing can put away that much food." Ranma, who had 
been standing quietly blushing as her pilots described her, what sounded 
like, gluttonous tendencies, smirked.

"Is that a challenge, Mister Richards?" Ranma asked.

"Yeah, I think maybe it is, Ma'am," the large black man grinned 
toothily. "I know a great burger place in town. If you can out eat me 
than I'm buying."

"How about this, we all go there and have dinner," Ranma said. "If I can 
out eat you then you buy for everyone. If I can't then everyone's dinner 
is on me."

"You're on," Berry said confidently. "Did ya hear that boys? The Dragon 
Lady's buyin' us dinner."

"Care to make any side bets on that, gentlemen?" Ursula asked sweetly.

"I got 20 says she's pukin' in the john before Berry slows down," Will 
Carlisle, pilot of Blue 6, piped up.

"I got 25 on Berry," Harold Frank, Blue 7, announced.

(oO\O/Oo)

An hour later 8 Blues and 8 Roses poured into Buck's Burger Barn. The 
staff pulled four tables together for them and Ranma and Berry took 
their positions near the center, their respective teams flanking them.

"Hey Maria," Berry greeted the waitress as she walked up.

He began to explain what was happening and Maria goggled at the sight of 
the tiny redhead who claimed to be able to eat more than Berry. It was 
arranged that the burgers were to be brought out two for each at a time 
so they didn't get cold before they were eaten. They would keep coming 
until one of the competitors conceded or was disqualified by having to 
go to the bathroom. Touching the other's food, trying to make them sick, 
or interference from the teammates was grounds for disqualification as 
well.

As soon as the others had been served, Ranma and Berry each had a burger 
before them and one off to the side ready to go. They stared each other 
down like old west gun fighters. On an unspoken signal, they reached for 
their plate and picked up there weapon. Never breaking eye contact, 
Ranma took her first bite.

"Mmmmm," Ranma moaned closing her eyes in pure bliss. "These ARE good. I 
could eat a hundred of them. Glad you're paying."

"I got nothin' to worry about, little girl," Berry grinned after 
swallowing his own mouthful. "Hope the RDF pays well."

Ranma smirked and the battle was joined. Soon the second burger was in 
front of them and the third took its place at ready, followed by the 
fourth, then the fifth. As they moved the fifth burger in front of them 
Berry was beginning to look worried.

"What the matter, Captain?" Ranma teased. "You're not getting full 
already are you?" His eyes narrowed.

"I will NOT be defeated," He growled. "I won't allow it!" He tucked into 
number five with renewed vigor.

By number eight Berry was clearly loosing momentum while Ranma looked 
like she had just sat down. With number nine half eaten, the dark 
skinned man was looking positively green. "No mas," Berry said, starting 
at the half eaten burger and pushing back from the table.

"Giving up, already?" Ranma chirped, finishing the last bites of ten, 
with eleven on deck. "You gonna eat that?" she asked pointed to his 
untouched tenth burger.

Berry's eyes got big as saucers and he dumbly shook his head. Ranma 
grinned brightly and snatched the plate, tearing into it before it could 
get any cooler. The Roses and the Blues that had been wise enough not to 
bet laughed heartily while Berry and his supporters groaned.

Berry groaned again when he saw the bill, but Ranma took pity on him and 
left a fifty percent tip, sparing the man at least that. She couldn’t 
and didn't spare him the ribbing he took as everyone thanked him for 
dinner.

"How?" Berry asked in misery, not understanding how Ranma seemed to fit 
what must have been half her body mass into her stomach and not explode.

"Saotome School Secret Technique," Ranma grinned mischievously. "Seefood 
Diet. You see food, you eat it, until it's gone, 'cause you may not know 
when the next meal is coming."

Everyone laughed. They were gratified to see a noticeable bulge in 
Ranma's waistline as she stood and waddled to the door. It would have 
been just too weird if her waist had been just as tiny as when she came 
in.

"Gosh Mom," Cassie said as they got in the car, "Looks like we're gonna 
have a baby sister soon." She patted Ranma's distended stomach. Ranma 
looked at her darkly.

"Don't even imagine something like that," Ranma growled. Everyone 
blanched.

"Sorry, Mom," Cassie said.

"If anything it's going to be a little brother," Ranma smiled brightly, 
with a contrived dreamy look. "Your brother will be so manly!"

Ranma looked around at the looks on their faces and dissolved into 
laughter.

(oO\O/Oo)

February 2009...

Ranma sat on the edge of the deck behind Brett Kingsley's rural home 
looking out across the seemingly endless expanse of desert. A beer 
appeared before her, dripping moisture, evidence of its recent removal 
from the ice chest. Ranma looked up at Brett and smiled her thanks, 
taking the beer. Brett sat down beside her.

"You think we're ready?" Ranma asked.

"You guys were born ready," Brett chuckled. "I don't know want I 
expected before you guys got here, but you're not it. I guess when they 
told me that we were to help train an all female demonstration squadron 
I was thinking of a bunch of bubbly cheerleaders with pretty airplanes 
and if I was lucky they'd be adequate pilots. I was half right. Turns 
out I got a bunch of shit-hot professionals that could do incredible 
things with pretty airplanes. It just so happened that they were all 
pretty enough to be cheerleaders."

"We're not all that," Ranma said modestly. "The VF-1's make us look 
good. We're all young with relatively low flight hours compared to you 
guys."

"Some of you, maybe," Brett said. "I heard some stories about you, 
Ranma. Word is that you're the real deal. I have to agree. I've seen how 
your leadership has brought your people together and made them perform 
beyond themselves. I think your CAG made a good choice with getting you 
in command of a squadron, even if it is a secondary unit."

"I had good role models," Ranma returned. "Roy Fokker is a great officer 
to serve with. He leads from the front and doesn't put up with the 
political bullshit whenever possible. You're no slouch either. I've 
watched you inspire your men to greater heights as well. I just hope if 
it ever drops in the pot, the Roses will validate Roy's decisions by 
putting us together."

"You've flown combat," Brett said. "How do you think they'll do?"

"I'm not sure," Ranma admitted. "They're skilled, but inexperienced. 
Most of them have very little combat training beyond what they had in 
the initial VF-1 training. They certainly have the potential, but you 
know as well as I do that the crucible of combat is the only way to 
forge them into a true fighting unit."

"I think you'll be fine," Brett grinned. "I don't think I've ever seen a 
group of people with more focus and mental discipline." Ranma snorted.

"That's by design, you know," she pointed out. "It's one of the 
parameters they used to select us." Brett shrugged.

"Whatever works," he replied. "You've got a good group and they've got a 
good CO. I'm sure time will illustrate that better than anything."

They sat silently for a few more minutes before Ranma broke it.

"You know, if you make it out to Macross for the Launch Day show," Ranma 
suggested, "I'm sure the girls and I can take you up for a little joy 
ride in a VF-1D. I know you've got a show season to prepare for and 
we've been keeping you from that, but I'd like to extend my personal 
invitation to the Blues to come out and take a look."

"Why, Lieutenant, if I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying 
to seduce me into joining the RDF," Brett laughed.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Ranma grinned. "Why would you want to join the 
RDF and fly sexy cutting edge aircraft capable of things you can only 
imagine for better pay when you can stay here and fly those old obsolete 
crates you guys fly?" Brett snorted. "Anyway, that's my job, ain't it? 
Get some of you recalcitrants into our ranks?"

"And very tempting you make it sound too," Brett laughed.

(oO\O/Oo)

Dictionary of Acronyms and other Jargon

(As requested by Lerris)

2IC--Second In Command

AMRAAM--Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile

APU--Auxiliary Power Unit

ATC--Air Traffic Control

AWACS--Airborne Warning And Control System

BDU--Battle Dress Uniform (fatigues)

BOQ--Bachelor Officer's Quarters

CAG--Commander, Air Group

CAP--Combat Air Patrol

CAS--Close Air Support

CBU--Cluster Bomb Unit

CO--Commanding Officer

ETA--Estimated Time of Arrival

GBU--Guided Bomb Unit

HARM--High speed Anti-Radiation Missile

JSDF-- Japanese Self Defense Force

LAV--Light Armored Vehicle

SAM--Surface to Air Missile

SDF--Super Dimensional Fortress

UNEDF--United Nations of Earth Defense Force

UNEDC--Untied Nations of Earth Defense Command

RDF--Robotech Defense Force

XO--Executive Officer (second in command)

Angels in reference to altitude is a navy thing, and is a way of saying 
flight level, which basically means adding three zeros on the number for 
the altitude reference. (JRA)

Port--left

Starboard--right

Onwards to Part 9


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